Initiating Change

Not only do we push our students to set high standards, we also push ourselves as a university. In the K-State 2025 plan, we're aspiring to become one of the nation's Top 50 public research universities. Each year our programs and research projects become more widely recognized. With the increasing number of National Science Foundation CAREER Award winners and patents, we're getting closer to our goal.

Inspiration

Undergraduate research director Anita Cortez identifies excellence. She sees untapped potential in students and works diligently to help them manifest their own greatness. From matching scholars with mentors and research projects that interest and challenge them, to motivating scholars to apply and win national, prestigious scholarships. In 15 years, she has influenced students who are now physicians, social change agents, architects and top researchers. Developing leaders of tomorrow.

Passion

He’s combating climate change from the ground up.
Climate change. It’s been called the greatest threat facing our planet today. On the front lines
of this epic environmental battle is Kansas State University soil microbiologist Chuck Rice. He
sets his sights on the ground to find solutions with adaptation and mitigation strategies for the
Great Plains. He’s digging deep to minimize the effect of extreme climate on our ability to feed
9 billion by 2050.

Creativity

General Electric recruited Herbert Dimond out of Kansas State University to work on
top-secret World War II projects. But he never forgot one thing that was no secret
on campus: the value of an extra few minutes of sleep. So he also invented the
snooze
alarm, introduced by GE in 1956. It has occupied hallowed ground in dorm rooms
ever
since.

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Family

In Manhattan, campus pride starts with students helping students. That's the
objective
of K-State Proud, a student-led campaign that raised more than $700,000 to
help those
among them who need it the most. This nationally recognized fundraising
campaign is
just one more
example of how the K-State family treats one another like,
well, family.

Passion

English professor Gregory Eiselein believes that every Kansas State University freshman should
have an amazing first year. That’s why he co-founded K-State First, a program that creates a
community of learning and engagement for college freshmen.

His students already called him one of the best, and recently a leading education academy did
the same. Named the 2013 Kansas Professor of the Year by the CASE/Carnegie Foundation,
Eiselein is ensuring that the university’s newest students thrive in and out of the classroom.

Fulfilling Dreams

Jim Reed gives us good reason to fight over the window seat. As a student, he worked as a mechanic on the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer
when it set the longest nonstop flight distance record. Today he builds commercial spacecraft for Richard Branson’s
Virgin Galactic. Travelers on these suborbital space flights can experience
microgravity out of their seats and view planet Earth from their windows, making reaching for
the stars all the more real.

Resourceful

Mark Sowers is living a childhood dream of helping wildlife. As an undergraduate he worked with
bison on Kansas State University’s Konza Prairie. As an alumnus he studies elephants in Kenya.
One morning, his research team received reports of a baby elephant trapped in a well dug by
Maasai cattle herders. Sowers and three others rushed to the site and struggled for more than 30 minutes to
pull the several-hundred-pound baby to safety. With a small rope, teamwork — and a lot of
perseverance — they eventually reunited baby and mother.

Creativity

Lauren Bishop ❤ N.Y.

Living her dream as an entertainment publicist for one of the city's biggest firms, the Kansas State University journalism alumna travels the world and rubs shoulders with rock legends. Her successful career started in Manhattan, Kansas, with encouraging professors and a vast Wildcat network. The hard work and discipline were all her own.

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Perseverance

When a series of explosions rocked a grain elevator he was inspecting, Kansas State
alumnus Kevin Saunders was launched into a parking lot more than 300 feet away. His
body was broken, but his spirit was resilient. Defying all odds, Kevin transformed
himself into the World's Greatest Wheelchair Athlete, a sought-after motivational
speaker, and an inspiration to us all.

Resourceful

It was the day the music nearly died. Little remained after a 1968 fire roared
through
Nichols Hall. But the Wildcat band was undaunted. Using the only sheet music
that
survived, they pumped up the home basketball crowd with a rousing rendition of
"Wabash
Cannonball." To this day, the jingle, the rumble and the roar still bring
fans to
their feet.

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Passion

More than 4.5 million YouTube viewers have already witnessed how anthropologist Michael Wesch and his students are transforming higher education through the power of technologies like YouTube. Together they've created videos that expound on how we learn and communicate. Enthusiastic professors like Wesch are proof that passion for teaching can begin small, yet impact thousands of lives. They're the reason why Kansas State ranks first among all public research universities for U.S. CASE/Carnegie Professors of the Year.